Recommended Reading

Ina Mays Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin Buy from HBA - Available in HBA Library - Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryWell known for the seminal work, Spiritual Midwifery, her new book, Ina Mays Guide to Childbirth, is now available. It inspires women to take back the fear of childbirth by regaining confidence in their bodies and assuring them - your body still works!

Active Birth: The New Approach to Giving Birth Naturally by Janet Balaskas Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryRevised edition of Active Birth is an inspiring book. She is writing to the lay public, to women anticipating a birth. However, this well written, informative and energetic book should be read by health professionals as well.

More general home birth recommended books

Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin Buy from HBA - Available in HBA Library - Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryHere is the 4th edition of the classic book on home birth that introduced a whole generation of women to the concept of natural childbirth. Back again are even more amazing birthing tales, including those from women who were babies in earlier editions and stories about Old Order Amish women attended by the Farm midwives.Here is the 4th edition of the classic book on home birth that introduced a whole generation of women to the concept of natural childbirth. Back again are even more amazing birthing tales, including those from women who were babies in earlier editions and stories about Old Order Amish women attended by the Farm midwives.

Birth Matters: A Midwife's Manifesta by Ina May Gaskin Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryRenowned for her practice's exemplary results and low intervention rates, Ina May Gaskin has gained international notoriety for promoting natural birth. She is a much-beloved leader of a movement that seeks to stop the hyper-medicalization of birth—which has lead to nearly a third of hospital births in America to be cesarean sections — and renew confidence in a woman's natural ability to birth. Upbeat and informative

Rediscovering Birth by Sheila Kitzinger Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryKitzinger's book helps women learn about taking back their bodies from the male-oriented medical business, respecting the ancient vocation of midwifery, and helping each other during a pregnancy.

Homebirth and other alternatives to hospital by Sheila Kitzinger Out of print, but highly recommended for anyone considering homebirth, or simply interested in the beautiful process of childbirth.

The Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, and Other Labor Companions by Penny Simkin Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryA guide for those who wish to help a woman have a positive childbirth experience. It provides information about: techniques and medications for easing labor pain; tests and treatments of the fetus and newborn; strategies to help labor progress; medical procedures; and, how to best help the mother during the early postpartum period.

The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryOffers clear, concise information on alternative birthing methods * choosing a birth location * drugs and delivery * elective induction * professional labor support * and much more

Heart & Hands: A Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy & Birth by Elizabeth Davis Buy on AmazonA Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy and Birth, is not just for midwives. It's an excellent and thorough resource for parents-to-be who are thinking about delivering their child with a midwife, or who are concerned about the medical establishment's over-control of birth.

Home Birth: a Practical Guide by Nicky Wesson Buy from HBA - Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryStriking a perfect balance of practical information, compelling personal stories and research evidence, leading childbirth educator Nicky Wesson shows how giving birth to your baby in your own home can be the most exciting and fulfilling thing you ever do.

Reading Birth & Death: a History Of Obstetric Thinking by Jo Murphy-LawlessBuy from HBA - Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryThis book is a must-read! I've been involved in maternity care reform (and revolution!) for thirty-one years, and Murphy-Lawless' book makes crystal-clear just how destructive and repressive obstetrics has been for women historically, and why most women today have been seduced by so-called "scientific obstetrics," their birthing experiences taken from them in so many ways. It pinpoints over and over again just how women's strengths, flexibility, emotional and physical abilities to bear their children have been denied them systematically for three hundred years. This book, rich with factual research, gives us a great deal of knowledge and strength, for once we understand the forces that fashioned modern obstetrical practice, we can regain the power and the strength to fashion a world in which we become the subjects, the "agents" of our own experiences, mainly by asserting that having children is a complex, profound event of life and health. Listen to the birthing stories of the women you know. Listen to what they say, and what they are not saying. See where they have felt strong, or felt that something important has been taken away from them. Examine your own strengths, and your own fears in the light of the information in this book. Have a wonderful read!

The New Experience Of Childbirth by Sheila KitzingerBuy from HBA - Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryChildbirth is one of the most important and powerful events in a woman's life - and yet many women look back on it as an ordeal. Sheila Kitzinger, acknowledged around the world as an expert in the psychological, social and physiological aspects of birth, has rewritten her first book for today's women. Herself a mother of five, all born at home, she believes that birth can be a positive and deeply satisfying experience. She co-created the teacher training scheme of the National Childbirth Trust, and was the first person to introduce couple's classes, pregnancy and postnatal counselling, and birth companions to give personal support and help in childbirth. Written with warmth, elegance and understanding, The New Experience Of Childbirth explores emotional as well as the physical elements in childbirth and is essential reading for every mother- (and father-) to be.

Water Birth

Water Birth: The Concise Guide to Using Water During Pregnancy Birth, and Infancy by Janet Balaskas and Yehudi GordonWritten for expectant parents and their birth attendants, this book provides practical information on the use of water through pregnancy, birth and during infancy. The benefits of using water are now being widely recognized and birth pools are to be found in increasing numbers of hospitals. This book provides encouragement and all the necessary advice for parents contemplating a water birth and the midwives who will attend in labour. Currently out of print.

We Are All Water Babies by Jessica Johnson and Michel Odent Jessica Johnson and Michael Odent have created a fascinating exploration of our links with water from birth to death. Johnson has captured remarkable images of underwater births, pregnant women swimming with dolphins, and infants and babies swimming underwater--eyes open, breath held, delighted... Currently out of print.

Water Birth Unplugged: Proceedings of the First International Water Birth Conference by Beverley A. Lawrence BeechBuy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryIt comprises a collection of chapters covering all aspects of waterbirth as well as a look at how waterbirth practices differ around the world. The topics include: Why a waterbirth? - Marsden Wagner, Janet Balaskas and Michel Odent; the physiology of waterbirth - Gerd Eldering and Konrad Selke and Paul Johnson; Waterbirth and the family - Jayn Ingrey and Roger Lichy; Technology and childbirth - Beverley Lawrence Beech and Rosemary Jenkins; Waterbirth and the mid-wife - Caroline Flint, Cass Nightingale and Dianne Garland; Waterbirth and the obstetician - Jole Muscat, Michael Adam, Patrick Snora, Michael J Rosenthal and Faith Haddad; Waterbirth internationally - Athena Vassie, Piera Maghella and Anne Uller; and, Waterbirth - the way forward - Judy Bothamley, Joanne Chadwick, Yehudi Gordon, and Lesley Page.

The Waterbirth Handbook: The Gentle Art of Waterbirthing by Dr. Roger Lichy and Eileen HerzbergCurrently out of print

Irish specific books

The Better birth Book by Tracy Donegan Tracy explores the birth options available to women in Ireland.

Emergency: Irish Hospitals in Chaos by Marie O'Connor Chapter 6, Heart of Darkness and chapter 8 on the centralisiation of birth, The Industrial Revolution, which opens with a searing interview with a casualty of active management.

Bodily Harm: symphysiotomy and pubiotomy in Ireland 1944-92 by Marie O Connor A pelvic operation carried out during childbirth which left women with lifelong problems breached their constitutional rights and was unlawful, according to a this book published 2011.

Children's books

Miscarriage

Miscarriage : Women Sharing from the Heart by Marie Allen Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryThis candid and poignant book helps you understand and work through your deepest feelings and concerns and, most importantly, reassures you that you are not alone.

Miscarriage: Why it Happens and How Best to Reduce Your Risks by Henry Lerner and Alice Domar Buy on Book Depository

After a Loss in Pregnancy by Nancy Berezin Out of print

Other useful books to read

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League International Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book Depository - Also available at any La Leche League meetingThis is the 7th edition of the big book on breastfeeding, written by the experts at La Leche League International

Three in a Bed by Deborah Jackson Buy from HBA - Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryThis book offers an alternative: taking your baby to bed with you. Drawing on up-to-date and startling new evidence, the author shows how babies who sleep with their parents benefit by getting virtually a full night's sleep. Three in a Bed also includes a fully revised chapter based on new research on the SIDS debate and includes practical information on safety in the bed and how to deal with the moment when the baby leaves his parents' bed. The approach advocated in this book can change the life of any parent struggling with getting their baby to sleep through the night.

The Scientification of Love by Michel Odent Buy on Amazon - Buy on Book DepositoryWhy do all cultures ritually disrupt the first contact between mother and new-born baby? Why has there hitherto been an evolutionary advantage in developing human potential for aggression rather than the capacity to love? Until recently love was the realm of poets, artists and philosophers.

The Heart in the Womb is a book by Dr Amali Lokugamage, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at a London hospital and keynote speaker at the Homebirth Association of Ireland's Conference 2014. It looks at birth as a social phenomenon rather than a isolated and medical complication.

"As a consultant obstetrician who gave birth at home, Amali Lokugamage is unique. No wonder that her book is also unique and should be read by a large public." Dr Michel Odent